The lake is calm, without breeze or ripple to distract the senses from the surrounding splendor. The boat even shushes the lap-lap of the water, voiding the movement for the moment. A pure silence, one in which she alone is the center of the world. Alone with her thoughts, where the only sound she hears are the words in her head – “What’s gonna happen next?”

Spaces in silence can be so wonderful, yet often they are silences filled with many other things, like guilt, fear or apathy. Instead of appreciating the quietness and solitude a lull can provide, we feel like we should always be doing something else, or we should always be worrying about some (often manufactured) thing. Children often say, “I’m bored,” whereas the adult may not vocalize it, we are indoctrinate to activity and we cannot bear the thought of just being.

This is something that God is good at. He knows how to be, and wants us to be, in Him – resting. So simple, but so hard for me to do. I must cross of those tasks, fulfill those goals, get those achievements, but I long for those silences to sing their song of joy and peace, I just have a hard time disconnecting to the world’s cacophony. I know that God is working all the time, and we are told we can rest in Him, that “the word of the Lord is right and true; He is faithful in all he does” (Psalm 33:4), and if we listen in those silences instead of rushing to fill the void, we just might hear what God is saying for us to do, not spin the wheels so much, and know the beauty in balance. This is hard for me, as whenever I have free time, my face can usually be found in a book, a screen of some kind, or one of a dozen other means of engagement. Whoever said silence is golden did not anticipate the demands of modern society.

Do you know when to rest in the silence? Have you learned to take advantage of those silences? What have you learned in your silence?

Perhaps I need to carve out moments of silence, so God can reach me in this noisy world. Perhaps you do too.

Listen to the silence, Til the blessed ‘morrow.

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound” – John Newton